Trump’s America Is Not a Serious Country – But We Are Seriously Screwed
In the Oval Office, the president wanted to talk Mixed Martial Arts, not Middle East war. At the FBI, fundamental freedoms were under fire… while the director handed out personalized booze.
On this day in 1994, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s masterpiece, The Scream, was recovered almost three months after being stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo. An enduring symbol of existential angst – perhaps never more relevant than now – the painting would likely sell for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Good morning… Martin here, delighted to be writing ‘First Draft’ again. Wednesday was another utterly ridiculous day in Donald Trump’s America, from alarming lows to social media sugar highs and back again, the WWE Smackdown presidency in full effect even while our freedoms are attacked and a major Middle East war careens from one lethal threat to another.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the president talks UFC while the press tries to talk Iran, the FBI threatens journalists and Democrats … and a private prison company cashes in on Trump’s ICE terror. Welcome to America.
‘We’re Having a Big Fight’
Two things can be true at the same time. Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the US has ceased to be a serious country. Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the US is seriously screwed.
On Wednesday, Trump welcomed reporters into the Oval Office. The US-Israel war with Iran remained unresolved. A cost-of-living crisis, supercharged by that war and its effect on world oil prices, surged ever onwards. With Trump’s polls in the toilet, his party was racing to disenfranchise Black voters, as enabled by the Supreme Court.
That wasn’t all there was for the president to discuss. His administration had just unveiled a new counterterrorism strategy, while the FBI was reportedly investigating both a reporter who filed an unflattering piece about its director and a Virginia Democrat working to counter Republican electoral shenanigans.
The country was on fire. Trump wanted to talk mixed martial arts.
Surrounded by professional fighters, the president, in his baggy suit and Freudian tie, played ringmaster for his next White House desecration: a UFC event, set for the night of June 14, to celebrate America’s 250th birthday and Trump’s 80th, not necessarily in that order.
“We’re having a big fight,” Trump said. “It’s never going to happen again, never happened before, and it’s all of the best fighters, best four fighters standing right behind me and all champions and it’s going to happen right in front of the White House, here’s a picture.”
He showed a mock-up. He talked, and bragged, and when they could get a word in, the fighters talked and bragged. Eventually, Trump asked for questions, though “only for the fighters,” because the reporters would “want to ask about Iran and a couple other things.”
Among the would-be Woodwards and Bernsteins, one fearless soul spoke up.
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